Photo: Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Images

Just like Current TV reporters Euna Lee and Laura Ling before him, American Aijalon Mahli Gomes has been sentenced to years of hard labor in North Korea for crossing the reclusive country's border, we guess. Gomes, a human-rights activist, used to teach English in South Korea, until he was inspired to illegally enter North Korea in January of this year. A faintly discernible outcry in the United States failed to produce lenience from the communist nation's Central Court, and in addition to eight years in a labor camp, Gomes was fined the equivalent of $700,000. However, it's expected that the struggling government could try to use Gomes as a bargaining chip with the United States, as it did with Lee and Ling last year. Bill Clinton memorably flew in to secure the release of the two young, attractive journalists. There has been no mention of Clinton making a similar trip for Gomes.

North Korea sentences U.S. man, Aijalon Mahli Gomes, to 8 years hard labor for illegal entry [NYDN]